underlie.
To lie in a position directly beneath something.
Meaning & usage
To lie in a position directly beneath something.
To lie under or beneath.
A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.
To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.
To be subject to; be liable to answer, as a charge or challenge.
To underlay.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English underlien, underliggen, from Old English underliċġan (“to underlie, to be subject to, give way to”), equivalent to under- + lie. Cognate with Dutch onderliggen (“to lie below, lie on the bottom of”), German unterliegen (“to lie under, be subject to, succumb”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.